In this concluding chapter, we, the book editors, will begin by highlighting the main features from the twelve chapters of this book. This will serve as the foundation for a discussion on teachers’ professional knowledge, connecting the discussions to the ongoing conversation between Anglo-Saxon social realism and the Northern European subject didactic tradition. The significance of subject didactics as a field of knowledge in teacher education is emphasised, particularly notable given the clear international trend towards the de-academisation of teacher education.

En ständigt aktuell, och komplex, fråga handlar om litteraturundervisningenskunskapsinnehåll samt hur elevernas lärande av detta innehåll ska mätas ochbedömas. Med ett specifikt fokus på gymnasieskolan, undersöks i denna artikel,med utgångspunkt i begreppen kraftfull kunskap och kraftfull professionskunskap,litteraturundervisning i ett skollandskap präglat av en mätbarhetsdiskurs. Detempiriska materialet består av fyra svensklärares samtal under en forskningscirkelkring platsbaserat läsande. Ett särskilt fokus är lärarnas ämnesförståelse ochuppfattningar om kunskapsinnehållet i litteraturundervisningen samt hur detta kanförstås som aspekter av undervisningens kvalitet. Våra resultat visar att lärarnaskraftfulla professionskunskap handlar om undervisningspraktiker som präglas avlitteraturläsningens öppenhet och att stötta eleverna i att hitta strategier därde kan bygga litterära föreställningsvärldar. Utsagorna visar att elevernas kunskaps-utveckling behöver värderas över längre tid, för att kunna urskilja en progression ilitteraturläsning. Den kraftfulla professionskunskapen handlar också om att kunnahantera och utmana elevernas tidigare erfarenheter i tolkande undervisningsaktiviteteroch att bygga undervisningen på akademisk kunskap som behöver anpassas ochtransformeras till klassrummet. Den handlar dessutom om att kunna navigera iett spänningsfält där litteraturundervisningens kunskapsstruktur står i kontrastmot den överordnade kunskapsstruktur de möter i sin skolvardag där mätdiskurserfragmentiserar elevernas litteraturläsning.

This volume of the Teacher Education Policy in Europe (TEPE) book series presents original research that contributes to the knowledge base in teacher education research, including international perspectives. The chapters focus on themes on practice-based research for transformation, curriculum development and the student experience, as well as continuous professional development in times of change.

The contributing authors emphasise how the purpose of education is not just about transferring knowledge but about transforming the knowledge that is taught and learned through various transformation processes that occur at different levels both outside and within the educational system. The book highlights the need for teacher educators and curriculum makers to continuously reflect on aspects of powerful knowledge.

Contributors are: Peter Nicolai Aashamar, Pauline Book, Aimie Brennan, Angela Canny, Ina Cijvat, Cosette Crisan, Cindy De Smet, Kaisa Hahl, Ann-Kristin Hamberg, Katalin Hubai, Fjolla Kaçaniku, Nina Kilbrink, Alison Kitson, Kirsti Klette, André Koffeman, Yvonne Liljekvist, Susanne Mellerskog, David Mitchell, Sofie Nilsson, Christine Schmider, Alexander Jonas Viktor Selling, Marco Snoek, Alexis Stones, Linda Söderlind and Cato Tandberg.

En debattartikel där historieämnet vid Karlstads universitet lyfter sin oro för centralisering av arkiv där vi lyfter att Sveriges nätverk av regionala statliga arkiv hotas av centralisering, där Riksarkivet planerar att koncentrera verksamheten till ett fåtal orter. Detta kan leda till nedläggning av arkiv som det i Karlstad, vilket skulle få allvarliga konsekvenser för forskning, utbildning och det regionala kulturarvet. Arkivcentrum i Karlstad, ett samarbete mellan Värmlandsarkiv och Föreningsarkivet, har sedan 1990-talet varit en central resurs för allmänhet, forskare och studenter. På Arkivcentrum finns unikt material från medeltid till nutid, som aktivt används i akademisk utbildning och forskning. Riksarkivets argument att digitalisering kan ersätta fysisk arkivnärvaro anser vi vara missvisande, då endast en liten del av materialet är digitaliserat. Förlusten av fysiskt arkivmaterial i regionen riskerar därför att skapa blinda fläckar i historieskrivningen. Historiker vid Karlstads universitet uppmanar därför Region Värmland att agera för att bevara det statliga arkivmaterialet i Karlstad och säkerställa fortsatt tillgång till denna ovärderliga kunskapsresurs.

Drawing on sociological perspectives on literacy in which reading is viewed upon as a social and cultural practice, situated in the specifics of time and place (Barton & Hamilton, 2012) this symposium will address the significance of volitional reading in peoples’ lives across life stages and diverse national contexts. It attends to an expanded definition of the concept of reading which acknowledges the social, affective and relational dimensions of reading alongside cognitive dimensions (Cremin & Scholes, 2024). The first paper, Informally Talking about Books and Reading (Teresa Cremin & Helen Hendry), will share insights from two studies of UK classrooms that explored children’s book conversations and the social connections among  communities of engaged readers. The second paper, Lived Experiences of Young and Working Adults’ Print and Digital Recreational Reading (Chin Ee Loh), examines Singapore adults’ reading preferences to understand when, why and how they read for leisure, and the platforms through which reading is done. The third paper, Practical performative reading practices in rural woodlands (Stig-Börje Asplund, Birgitta Ljung Egeland, Gabriel Bladh & Martin Stolare) will present results from a three-generational study on rural working-class males in Sweden and their local, place-based reading practices. The symposium constitutes a theoretical, methodological and empirical contribution to contemporary reading research by facilitating nuanced and in depth descriptions of peoples’ volitional reading practices in relation to local and global changes in schools and society.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the content selection and transformation processes utilised by upper primary teachers for pupils with problematic school absences in history and religious education. While previous research has approached the topic from either an individual perspective or a relational school perspective, this study adopts a subject-didactics approach. Based on nine teacher interviews, the analyses were conducted stepwise, initially inductively and then in relation to Wolfgang Klafki's framework, combined with established concepts from history education and religious education research. The content emphasized for pupils generally aligns closely with Klafki's assertions regarding what is essential, namely, content that aims to develop pupils' understanding of society, thereby becoming both subjectively and objectively meaningful. For pupils with problematic school absences, a pattern emerges where the subjectively meaningful, reflecting the pupil's interests, is emphasized more. The article discusses the risk that this may lead to limited opportunities for this group of pupils to broaden their perspectives and knowledge in order to understand and navigate in society. 

This paper explores the significance of reading in the lives of three generations of working-class males in four families living in the Swedish rural woodlands. By adopting a life history approach and taking an ecological perspective on reading that links narratives of reading experiences to places, times, and historical changes, the paper addresses how rural males’ reading practices intersect with ways of living in Swedish rural woodlands, and in what ways they have been maintained and changed across generations. Findings show that the males engage in practical performative reading practices where reading is transformed into embodied activities in which knowledge practices and embodied skills, entangled with socio-material and historical cultures, are constructed and reconstructed through intergenerational repetitions. In this way, reading emerges as an essential, community-building, and situated social practice through which the males, across generations, construct and reconstruct place-based knowledge practices vital for creating a sustainable lifestyle in the Swedish rural woodlands. The paper contributes insights into the role of reading in the construction of rural places, in formations of rural masculinities, and for the practices of staying, as well as how reading is influenced by the specific socio-cultural, historical, and material spaces available.